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DISPATCH PHOTOSVisitors gather to see “Buckeye Chuck” emerge from his hay pile at a Groundhog Day event in the parking lot of WMRN radio station in Marion. Chuck didn’t see his shadow yesterday.

MARION, Ohio — In a week during which temperatures hit the 60s and later dropped to near zero,
leave it to a rodent to call for an early spring.

“Buckeye Chuck,” Ohio’s chief weather prognosticator, emerged from his winter hibernation at
sunrise yesterday (7:39 a.m.), looked up long enough to see the falling snow and gray skies, then
quickly declared that he didn’t see his shadow before scurrying back below the straw in his
home.

According to legend, if Chuck sees his shadow, six more weeks of winter are inevitable. If he
doesn’t, spring will arrive early.Every Feb. 2, Chuck, the state’s official groundhog since 1979,
makes his way from the woods behind the studios of radio station WMRN in Marion to deliver his
forecast.

About 200 people who braved a temperature of 14 degrees and a wicked wind cheered as they heard
Chuck’s call for an early spring from a trailer set up outside the studios. The groundhog was
surrounded by local politicians, businesspeople and hosts from the radio station.

“We’ll see whether it comes true,” said Jason Frank, 42, who attended the event with his family.
“Hopefully, it does.”

Chuck’s call yesterday mirrored that of the most famous of all groundhogs: Punxsutawney Phil in
Pennsylvania.

The Groundhog Day tradition is rooted in a German superstition that if an animal casts a shadow
on Feb. 2, the Christian holiday of Candelmas, bad weather will follow.Heading into yesterday,
Chuck’s call was anyone’s guess after a wacky week of extreme weather in central Ohio and
nationwide, including deadly tornadoes in the South. Columbus enjoyed a high temperature of 67 on
Tuesday, then, by week’s end, weathered wind chills well below zero.

“It’s such a wait-five-minutes-and-the-weather-will-change state,” Mike Davis, meteorologist at
WBNS-TV (Channel 10), said in the days leading to Groundhog Day.

This winter has already yielded far more snow than last winter, which proved notable for its
scarce snowfall.

“If you’re looking for consistency,” Davis said, “this isn’t where you want to live.”The
seasonal ups and downs don’t faze Josh Nagel, 32.“It just seems (like) typical Ohio,” said Nagel,
chapter adviser for the Order of the Arrow, an honorary society for the Boy Scouts.About 20 Scouts
had pitched tents Friday night near the station, then woke up early to serve Spam sandwiches —
notable because, according to legend, Spam includes groundhog.